Julia Louis-Dreyfus 1990-98: The Seinfeld years What role did Julia Louis-Dreyfus play on Seinfeld? In the early 1990s, Louis-Dreyfus became famous for the role of Elaine Benes on NBC's Seinfeld. She played the role for nine seasons, appearing in all but three episodes. How was she chosen for the role? It was only after the first episode that NBC executives felt the show was too male-centric, and demanded that creators Jerry Seinfeld How did the public respond to her performance? Louis-Dreyfus won the role over several other actresses who would also eventually enjoy their own TV success, including Patricia Heaton, Rosie O'Donnell and Megan Mullally. Did she ever win an Emmy for the role? Her performance on the series was met with critical acclaim, and she was a regular winner and nominee at television award shows throughout the 1990s. Did she do work on any other projects during 1990 to 1998? Her performance earned her two Golden Globe Award nominations, winning once in 1994, nine Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, Did she work with any notable actors or actresses during this period? she appeared in several films, including Fathers' Day, opposite Robin Williams and Billy Crystal, and Woody Allen's Oscar-nominated Deconstructing Harry. Did Julia mention whether she enjoyed playing the character of Elaine? After receiving the award, Louis-Dreyfus claimed the win was a "shocker", and that after being in both positions, it was "much better to win than to lose."
When was Seinfeld cancelled?
When was Seinfeld cancelled?
In the early 1990s, Louis-Dreyfus became famous for the role of Elaine Benes on NBC's Seinfeld. She played the role for nine seasons, appearing in all but three episodes. One of the episodes that she did not appear in was the inaugural pilot episode, "The Seinfeld Chronicles", because her character was not initially intended to be a part of the series. It was only after the first episode that NBC executives felt the show was too male-centric, and demanded that creators Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David add a woman to the cast. It was revealed in the commentary on the DVD package that the addition of a female character was the condition for commissioning the show. Louis-Dreyfus won the role over several other actresses who would also eventually enjoy their own TV success, including Patricia Heaton, Rosie O'Donnell and Megan Mullally.  On the "Notes About Nothing" featurette on the DVD package, Seinfeld says that Louis-Dreyfus' ability to eat a peanut M&M without breaking the peanut aptly describes the actress: "She cracks you up without breaking your nuts."  Her performance on the series was met with critical acclaim, and she was a regular winner and nominee at television award shows throughout the 1990s. Her performance earned her two Golden Globe Award nominations, winning once in 1994, nine Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, winning one in 1995 and two in both 1997 and 1998, and seven American Comedy Awards, winning five times in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997 and 1998. In 1996, she received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, an award she was nominated for on seven occasions from 1992 to 1998. After receiving the award, Louis-Dreyfus claimed the win was a "shocker", and that after being in both positions, it was "much better to win than to lose."  In 1998, Seinfeld decided to end the series after nine seasons. The series finale aired on May 14 and was one of the most watched TV events in history, with over 76 million people tuning in.  During her time on Seinfeld she appeared in several films, including Fathers' Day, opposite Robin Williams and Billy Crystal, and Woody Allen's Oscar-nominated Deconstructing Harry. CANNOTANSWER
In 1998, Seinfeld decided to end the series after nine seasons. The series finale aired on
Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus ( ;  born January 13, 1961) is an American actress, comedian, and producer. She is known for her work in the comedy television series Saturday Night Live (1982–1985), Seinfeld (1989–1998), The New Adventures of Old Christine (2006–2010), and Veep (2012–2019). She is one of the most award-winning actresses in American television history, having received more Primetime Emmy Awards and more Screen Actors Guild Awards than any other performer, tying Cloris Leachman (with eight) for the most acting wins.

Louis-Dreyfus broke into comedy as a performer in The Practical Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois, which led to her casting in the sketch show Saturday Night Live from 1982 to 1985. Her breakthrough came in 1990 with a nine-season run playing Elaine Benes on Seinfeld, one of the most critically and commercially successful sitcoms of all time. Her other notable television roles include Christine Campbell in The New Adventures of Old Christine, which had a five-season run on CBS; and Selina Meyer in Veep, which ran for seven seasons on HBO. Her film roles include Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), Deconstructing Harry (1997), and Enough Said (2013). She also provided voices for the animated films A Bug's Life (1998), Planes (2013), and Onward (2020). In 2021, she began portraying Valentina Allegra de Fontaine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Louis-Dreyfus has received eleven Emmy Awards, eight for acting and three for producing. She has also received a Golden Globe Award, nine Screen Actors Guild Awards, five American Comedy Awards, and two Critics' Choice Television Awards. Louis-Dreyfus received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010 and was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2014. In 2016, Lena Dunham in Time named Louis-Dreyfus as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in the artists category in the annual Time 100 list. In 2018, she received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, presented by the Kennedy Center as America's highest comedy honor.

Early life
Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus was born in New York City on January 13, 1961. Her American-born mother, Judith (née LeFever), was a writer and special needs tutor, and her French-born father, Gérard Louis-Dreyfus, chaired the Louis Dreyfus Company. Her paternal grandfather, Pierre Louis-Dreyfus, was president of the Louis Dreyfus Group; he was a member of a Jewish family from Alsace and served as a cavalry officer and member of the French Resistance during World War II. She is also a great-great-granddaughter of Léopold Louis-Dreyfus, who in 1851 founded the Louis Dreyfus Group, a French commodities and shipping conglomerate, which members of her family still control; and is distantly related to Alfred Dreyfus of the infamous Dreyfus affair. Her paternal grandmother was born in the US, of partial Mexican origin, and Catholic; during the 1940s, she moved Julia's father to America from France.

In 1962, one year after Louis-Dreyfus's birth, her parents divorced. After moving to Washington, D.C., when Julia was four, her mother married L. Thompson Bowles, dean of the George Washington University Medical School; Louis-Dreyfus gained a half-sister Lauren Bowles, also an actress. Due to her stepfather's work with Project HOPE, Louis-Dreyfus spent her childhood in several states and countries, including Colombia, Sri Lanka, and Tunisia. She graduated from the all-girls Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1979. She later said, "There were things I did in school that, had there been boys in the classroom, I would have been less motivated to do. For instance, I was president of the honor society."

Louis-Dreyfus attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where she was a member of the Delta Gamma sorority. She studied theatre and performed in the Mee-Ow Show, a student-run improv and sketch comedy revue, before dropping out during her junior year to take a job at Saturday Night Live. In 2007, she received an honorary doctor of arts degree from Northwestern University.

Career

1982–1988: Early career and Saturday Night Live

As part of her comedic training, Louis-Dreyfus appeared in The Second City, one of Chicago's best-known improvisational theatre groups. It was her performance with The Practical Theatre Company at their "Golden 50th Anniversary Jubilee" that led to her being asked to join the cast of NBC's Saturday Night Live at the age of 21.

Louis-Dreyfus subsequently became a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1982 to 1985, the youngest female cast member in the history of the program at that time. During her time on SNL, she appeared alongside several actors who would later rise to prominence, such as Eddie Murphy, Jim Belushi, Billy Crystal, and Martin Short. It was during her third and final year on SNL that she met writer Larry David during his only year on the show, who would later co-create Seinfeld. Louis-Dreyfus has commented that her casting on SNL was a "Cinderella-getting-to-go-to-the-ball kind of experience"; however, she has also admitted that at times it was often quite tense, stating that she "didn't know how to navigate the waters of show business in general and specifically doing a live sketch-comedy show".

Recurring characters on Saturday Night Live
 April May June, a televangelist
 Becky, El Dorko's (Gary Kroeger) date
 Consuela, Chi Chi's friend and co-host of Let's Watch TV
 Darla in SNL 's parody of The Little Rascals
 Weather Woman, a superhero who controls the weather
 Patti Lynn Hunnsucker, a teenage correspondent on Weekend Update

Following her 1985 departure from SNL, Louis-Dreyfus appeared in several films, including Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters (1986); Soul Man (1986), starring C. Thomas Howell; and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), in which she starred alongside fellow SNL alumnus Chevy Chase. In 1987 Louis-Dreyfus appeared in the NBC sitcom pilot The Art of Being Nick, an intended spin-off from Family Ties starring Scott Valentine. When the pilot did not make it to series, Louis-Dreyfus was retained by producer Gary David Goldberg for a role on his new sitcom Day by Day, as the sarcastic and materialistic neighbor, Eileen Swift. Premiering in early 1988, Day by Day aired for two seasons on NBC before being cancelled.

1989–1998: Seinfeld and widespread recognition

In the early 1990s, Louis-Dreyfus became famous for the role of Elaine Benes on NBC's Seinfeld. She played the role for nine seasons, appearing in all but three episodes. One of the episodes that she did not appear in was the pilot episode, "The Seinfeld Chronicles", because her character was not initially intended to be a part of the series. It was only after the first episode that NBC executives felt the show was too male-centric and demanded that creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld add a woman to the cast. It was revealed in the commentary on the DVD package that the addition of a female character was the condition for commissioning the show. Louis-Dreyfus won the role over several other actresses who would also eventually enjoy TV success, including Patricia Heaton and Megan Mullally.

On the "Notes About Nothing" featurette on the DVD package, Seinfeld says that Louis-Dreyfus's ability to eat a peanut M&M without breaking the peanut aptly describes the actress: "She cracks you up without breaking your nuts."

Louis-Dreyfus garnered critical acclaim for her performance on the series, and she was a regular winner and nominee at television award shows throughout the 1990s. Her performance earned her two Golden Globe Award nominations, winning once in 1994, nine Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, winning one in 1995 and two in both 1997 and 1998, and seven American Comedy Awards, winning five times in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997 and 1998. In 1996, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, an award she was nominated for on seven occasions from 1992 to 1998. After receiving the award, Louis-Dreyfus claimed the win was a "shocker", and that after being in both positions, it was "much better to win than to lose."

In 1998, Jerry Seinfeld decided to end the series after nine seasons. The series finale aired on May 14 and was one of the most-watched TV events in history, with over 76 million viewers tuning in.

During her time on Seinfeld, she appeared in several films, including Fathers' Day, opposite Robin Williams and Billy Crystal, and Woody Allen's Oscar-nominated Deconstructing Harry.

1999–2004: Post-Seinfeld
Following a voice role in the highly successful Pixar film A Bug's Life, Louis-Dreyfus lent her voice as Snake's girlfriend Gloria in The Simpsons episode "A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love". In 2001, she made several special guest appearances on Seinfeld co-creator Larry David's show Curb Your Enthusiasm, playing herself fictionally trying to break the "curse" by planning to star in a show in which she would play an actress affected by a Seinfeld-like curse.

After several years away from a regular TV job, Louis-Dreyfus began a new single-camera sitcom, Watching Ellie, which premiered on NBC in February 2002. The series was created by husband Brad Hall and co-starred Steve Carell and Louis-Dreyfus's half-sister Lauren Bowles. The initial premise of the show was to present viewers with a "slice of life" from the goings-on and happenings of the life of Ellie Riggs, a Southern California jazz singer. The first season included a 22-minute countdown kept digitally in the lower left-hand corner of the screen, which many critics panned, claiming it was useless and "did nothing for the show." Overall, the show received mixed reviews but debuted strongly with over 16 million viewers tuning in for the series premiere, and maintained an average audience of about 10 million viewers per week.

When the series returned for a second season in the spring of 2003, it suffered a decline in viewership, averaging around eight million viewers per week. The show had undergone a drastic stylistic change between the production of seasons one and two. The first season was filmed in the single-camera format, but the second season was presented as a traditional multicamera sitcom filmed in front of a live studio audience. With dwindling viewership and failing to retain the numbers from its Frasier lead-in, the series was cancelled by NBC in May 2003.

Following NBC's cancellation of Watching Ellie, the media began circulating rumors of a so-called "Seinfeld curse", which claimed that none of the former Seinfeld actors could ever achieve success again in the television industry. Louis-Dreyfus dismissed the rumor as "a made-up thing by the media", while Seinfeld co-creator Larry David asserted that the curse was "completely idiotic."

Louis-Dreyfus was interested in the role of Susan Mayer on Desperate Housewives, the role that ultimately went to Teri Hatcher. Instead, Louis-Dreyfus scored a recurring guest role as Maggie Lizer, the deceitful prosecutor and love interest of Michael Bluth on the Emmy-winning comedy Arrested Development, from 2004 to 2005.

2005–2010: The New Adventures of Old Christine

In 2005, Louis-Dreyfus was cast in the title role of a new CBS sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine. The series and its concept were created by writer and producer of Will & Grace, Kari Lizer. The series told the story of Christine Campbell, a single mother who manages to maintain a fantastic relationship with her ex-husband while running a women's gym. The series debuted on CBS in March 2006 to an audience of 15 million and was initially a ratings winner for the network.

Louis-Dreyfus also garnered considerable critical acclaim for her performance on the show, with Brian Lowry of Variety stating that Louis-Dreyfus broke the so-called "Seinfeld curse [...] with one of the best conventional half-hours to come along in a while." Alessandra Stanley from The New York Times asserted that Louis-Dreyfus's performance on the series proved she is "one of the funniest women on network television." Louis-Dreyfus additionally earned the 2006 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance in the first season. Referring to the curse, she stated in her acceptance speech, "I'm not somebody who really believes in curses, but curse this, baby!" Throughout the course of the series, she received five consecutive Emmy Award nominations, three consecutive Satellite Award nominations, two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, and a nomination for a Golden Globe Award. In 2007, she also received two nominations for a People's Choice Award due to her return to popularity, thanks to the success of Old Christine.

In May 2006, Louis-Dreyfus hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live, becoming the first female former cast member to return to the show in the hosting role. In the episode, she appeared with her Seinfeld co-stars Jason Alexander and Jerry Seinfeld in her opening monologue, parodying the so-called "Seinfeld curse". After a successful reception from her 2006 episode, Louis-Dreyfus was invited again to host SNL on March 17, 2007, and again on April 17, 2016. Louis-Dreyfus reprised her role as Gloria in two Simpsons episodes: 2007's "I Don't Wanna Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" and 2008's "Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes". In the fall of 2009, she appeared with the rest of the cast of Seinfeld in four episodes of the seventh season of Larry David's sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm. The reunion shows received much media attention, and the episode received strong ratings for the HBO series.

In 2009, Louis-Dreyfus was granted the honorary award for Legacy of Laughter at the TV Land Awards. Previous winners had included Lucille Ball and Mike Myers. She was presented with the award by friend Amy Poehler. The following year, Louis-Dreyfus received the 2,407th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on May 4, 2010, for her remarkable contribution to the broadcast television industry as both an actress and a comedian. Originally, the star was set with Louis-Dreyfus's name spelled incorrectly. It was missing both the 'o' and the hyphen in her last name. The star was corrected and the misspelled portion was removed and presented to the actress. Celebrity guests at the event included past and current colleagues from throughout her career, including Clark Gregg, Larry David, Eric McCormack, and Jason Alexander.

Old Christine was cancelled by CBS on May 18, 2010, after 4 years. After its disbandment from CBS, discussions were held with ABC for the show to be revived on the network, but these plans never came to fruition.

In the spring of 2010, Louis-Dreyfus guest-starred several times in the third season of the web series Web Therapy, starring Lisa Kudrow. Louis-Dreyfus played the sister of the main character Fiona Wallice, who gives her therapy online. When the series made the transition to cable television on the Showtime network, Louis-Dreyfus's appearance from the web series was included in the second season, airing in July 2012.

In fall 2010, Louis-Dreyfus made a guest appearance on the live episode of the Emmy-winning comedy 30 Rock. She played Tina Fey's role of Liz Lemon in the cutaway shots. Louis-Dreyfus was among several Saturday Night Live alumni appearing in the episode, including Rachel Dratch, Bill Hader, and regulars Tracy Morgan and Fey herself. Louis-Dreyfus also starred in a "Women of SNL" special on November 1, 2010, on NBC.

2011–2019: Veep
In May and June 2011, Louis-Dreyfus teamed up with husband Brad Hall for her first short film, Picture Paris. This was the first time the couple had collaborated since their early-2000s NBC comedy Watching Ellie. Hall wrote and directed the film, while Louis-Dreyfus played the lead role of an ordinary woman with an extraordinary obsession with the city of Paris. The film premiered on January 29, 2012, at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and has received considerable critical acclaim. It made its television premiere on HBO on December 17, 2012.

In early 2011, HBO confirmed that Louis-Dreyfus had been cast in the lead role of U.S. Vice President Selina Meyer in a new satirical comedy series titled Veep. The series was commissioned for a first season of eight episodes. It was announced, in addition to her starring role, Louis-Dreyfus would also serve as a producer of the series. In preparation for her role, Louis-Dreyfus spoke with two former vice presidents, including Al Gore, senators, speechwriters, chiefs of staffs of various offices, and schedulers. Louis-Dreyfus has commended HBO for allowing the cast and crew to engage in a "protracted pre-production process", which included a six-week rehearsal period before filming began.

The first season was filmed in the fall of 2011, in Baltimore, and the series premiered on April 22, 2012. The premiere episode was met with high praise from critics, particularly for Louis-Dreyfus's performance. The Hollywood Reporter asserted that the character of Selina Meyer was her "best post-Seinfeld role" to date and claimed that she gives "an Emmy-worthy effort", while the Los Angeles Times contended that the series demonstrates that she is "one of the medium's great comediennes." Following the success of the first season, Louis-Dreyfus was named by the Huffington Post as one of the funniest people of 2012, asserting that she is the "most magnetic and naturally funny woman on TV since Mary Tyler Moore."

For her performance on Veep, Louis-Dreyfus has received several accolades, most notably six consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series from 2012 to 2017. Her Emmy wins for Veep, following previous wins for Seinfeld and The New Adventures of Old Christine, resulted in her becoming the only woman to win an acting award for three separate comedy series. Her sixth win for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2016 surpassed the record previously held by Mary Tyler Moore and Candice Bergen for the most wins in that category. In 2017 her sixth consecutive win and eighth acting win overall made her the performer with the most Emmys for the same role in the same series (surpassing Candice Bergen and Don Knotts) and put her in a tie with Cloris Leachman for the most Emmys ever won by a performer. She was also nominated as one of the producers for Veep in the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series category from 2012 to 2014, but the show lost to Modern Family on all three occasions. The show, however, won the top award from 2015 to 2017.

Louis-Dreyfus has also received five Critics' Choice Television Award nominations, winning twice in 2013 and 2014, ten Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, winning twice in 2014 and 2017, and five Television Critics Association Award nominations, winning once in 2014. Her performance has additionally garnered her five Satellite Award nominations and five consecutive Golden Globe Award nominations.

Louis-Dreyfus lent her voice to the 2013 animated film Planes, in the role of Rochelle. To date, the film has grossed well over $200 million at the box office worldwide. She also starred in the film Enough Said, directed by Nicole Holofcener, which was released on September 18, 2013. This marked her debut as a lead actress in a full-length feature film. The film garnered rave reviews from film critics, ranking among the best-reviewed films of 2013. The website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 96% based on 152 reviews, many of them praising Louis-Dreyfus's performance. She received several Best Actress nominations for her role in the film at award ceremonies, including the Golden Globe Awards, Satellite Awards, Critics' Choice Movie Awards, and the American Comedy Awards.

Since December 2014, Louis-Dreyfus has appeared in a series of television commercials for Old Navy.

On April 16, 2016, she hosted Saturday Night Live for the third time with musical guest Nick Jonas. During the episode's cold open, she reprised her role of Elaine Benes from Seinfeld.

2020–present: Production deal with Apple TV+
In 2020, Louis-Dreyfus headlined the comedy-drama Downhill, opposite Will Ferrell. The film premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was theatrically released on February 14. Next, she voiced a suburban elf mother in Pixar's Onward opposite Tom Holland and Chris Pratt. The film was released on March 6, 2020.

In January 2020, Louis-Dreyfus signed a multi-year deal with Apple TV+. Under the deal, she will develop new projects for Apple TV+ as both an executive producer and star.

In 2021, Louis-Dreyfus appeared in the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, which is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though she was originally intended to debut in the film Black Widow (where she appears in the post credit scene).

Personal life

Louis-Dreyfus's maternal half-sister, Lauren Bowles, is also an actress. She also has two paternal half-sisters: Phoebe and Emma, the latter of whom died in August 2018. Robert Louis-Dreyfus (1946–2009), one of her cousins, was former CEO of Adidas and owner of the Olympique de Marseille football club.

While at Northwestern, Louis-Dreyfus met future husband and Saturday Night Live comedian Brad Hall.  They married in 1987 and have two sons together: Henry (born 1992) and Charles (born 1997). Henry is a singer-songwriter, who has performed on The Tonight Show. Charles was a walk-on for the Northwestern Wildcats men's basketball team. In 2007, Louis-Dreyfus was invited back to Northwestern to receive an honorary Doctor of Arts degree.

Louis-Dreyfus has stated that she holds much respect for "women who are not afraid of making themselves look bad or foolish to get a laugh", and cites her acting idols as Lucille Ball, Mary Tyler Moore, Madeline Kahn, Teri Garr, Valerie Harper, and Cloris Leachman. Actress Tina Fey has stated that Louis-Dreyfus served as inspiration for her character Liz Lemon on the award-winning NBC comedy series 30 Rock.

On September 28, 2017, Louis-Dreyfus announced on Twitter her diagnosis of breast cancer, a diagnosis she received one day after receiving a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in Veep. She stated, "One in eight women get breast cancer. Today, I'm the one. The good news is that I have the most glorious group of supportive and caring family and friends, and fantastic insurance through my union. The bad news is that not all women are so lucky, so let's fight all cancers and make universal healthcare a reality." She announced on the October 18, 2018, episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! that she was cancer-free.

Politics
Louis-Dreyfus supported Al Gore's 2000 U.S. presidential bid, and also endorsed Barack Obama's bid for the presidency in 2008 and 2012. She appeared in a video that urged President Obama to reject the proposal of the Keystone XL pipeline, arguing that if the pipeline ever were to leak, it would cause mass pollution across the U.S. Additionally, she has voiced her concern for several environmental issues and has raised millions for Heal the Bay, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Trust for Public Land. She also worked for the successful passage of Proposition O, which allocated US$500 million for cleaning up the Los Angeles water supply.

In late October 2010, before the United States Senate election in California, Louis-Dreyfus starred in a humorous Barbara Boxer ad regarding energy policy.

During the 2016 Democratic National Convention, Louis-Dreyfus announced her endorsement of Hillary Clinton for the United States presidential election of that year.

In her acceptance speech at the 2017 Screen Actors Guild Awards, she denounced President Donald Trump's executive order of travel ban as "un-American," and said, "My father fled religious persecution in Nazi-occupied France."

Louis-Dreyfus emceed the final night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, endorsing Joe Biden. She has also published information regarding voting by mail and urged all Americans to vote.

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus has won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series seven times; once for her role on The New Adventures of Old Christine (2006) and six consecutive wins for playing Selina Meyer on Veep (2012–17), as well as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series on one occasion for Seinfeld (1996). As of 2017, she holds the record for the most Primetime Emmy wins as an actor for the same role and is tied with Cloris Leachman for the most acting Primetime Emmy wins (with eight). She has also been nominated for nine Golden Globe Awards, winning one for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries, or Television Film for her role as Elaine Benes on Seinfeld (1995). She has also been nominated for twenty-one Screen Actors Guild Awards and has won five for individual performance (nine all together) for her portrayals on Seinfeld (1997–98) and Veep (2014, 2017–18).

In 2018 she was the twentieth recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

See also
 Alfred Dreyfus – A distant relative at the center of the Dreyfus Affair miscarriage of justice

References

External links

 
 Julia Louis-Dreyfus at Emmys.com
 
 Julia Louis-Dreyfus Video produced by Makers: Women Who Make America

1961 births
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
20th-century American comedians
21st-century American comedians
Actresses from Maryland
Actresses from New York City
American film actresses
American people of Brazilian descent
American people of French-Jewish descent
American people of Mexican descent
American sketch comedians
American stage actresses
American television actresses
American voice actresses
American women comedians
Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (television) winners
Comedians from New York City
Hispanic and Latino American actresses
Living people
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Northwestern University School of Communication alumni
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Primetime Emmy Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Primetime Emmy Award winners
People from Bethesda, Maryland
People from Manhattan
Philanthropists from New York (state)
"The Seinfeld Chronicles" (also known as "Good News, Bad News", "Pilot", or simply "Seinfeld") is the pilot episode of the American sitcom Seinfeld, which first aired on NBC on July 5, 1989.

The first of the 180 Seinfeld episodes, it was written by show creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld and directed by Art Wolff. It revolves around a fictionalized version of Seinfeld, who is unsure about the romantic intentions of a woman he met, and frets about the meaning of her signals with his best friend George (Jason Alexander) and neighbor Kessler (Michael Richards, whose character was later renamed "Kramer").

Though they were asked to create a 90-minute TV special, Seinfeld and David wrote a TV pilot as they felt their "show about nothing" concept would fit better in the shorter, more conventional half-hour format. The storyline and main characters were inspired by real-life events and people. Though NBC executives were unsure about the show, they, as Warren Littlefield later stated, "They all said, 'Ah, what the hell, let's try a pilot on this thing and see what happens'." However, test audiences reacted extremely negatively. Although NBC would still broadcast the pilot to see how audiences and critics reacted, they decided not to order a first season of the show. Castle Rock Entertainment, which produced the pilot (and the subsequent series), had another pilot produced for NBC featuring actress Ann Jillian in her own eponymous series. After The Seinfeld Chronicles''' poor reception, the production company turned to Jillian's series, which tested better and had earned a full-season order. (It ran a single 13-episode season and was cancelled by the end of 1990.)

When The Seinfeld Chronicles aired, it was watched by nearly 11% of American households and received generally favorable reviews from critics, most of whom were disappointed that NBC did not order a first season. Convinced the show had potential, and supported by the positive reviews, NBC executive Rick Ludwin convinced his superiors to order a four-episode first season (the smallest order in US TV history), offering a part of his personal budget in return. The show, renamed Seinfeld, went on to become the most successful sitcom in television history.

Plot
The series opens with Jerry Seinfeld (Jerry Seinfeld) and his best friend, George Costanza (Jason Alexander) seated at Pete's Luncheonette, debating the placement of one of George's shirt buttons. Jerry tells George about a woman he met in Lansing, Michigan, Laura (Pamela Brull), who is coming to New York, and the two discuss whether or not she has romantic intentions. The next evening, Jerry tells his neighbor Kessler (Michael Richards) that he thinks he misunderstood the situation with Laura. However, he then receives a telephone call from Laura, who asks if she can stay overnight at his apartment. Though Jerry agrees, he is still unsure whether or not her visit is intended to be romantic. George and Jerry continue to debate the issue, with Jerry determined to find the true nature of her visit.

While waiting at the airport for Laura to arrive, Jerry and George try to identify the possible signals Laura might give upon her arrival, with George explaining the meaning of various greetings. However, when Laura arrives, her greeting is ambiguous. Upon arriving at Jerry's apartment Laura removes her shoes and some excess clothing to get comfortable, asks for wine, and turns down the light and asks if she can stay over a second night. As Jerry removes his own shoes and begins to grow confident, the phone rings for Laura. When Laura gets off the phone she tells Jerry: "Never get engaged." Jerry then realizes that he has no chance with Laura, but has already committed himself – and his one-bedroom apartment – to an entire weekend with her, including a five-hour sightseeing boat ride around Manhattan.

Production

Conception and writingThe Seinfeld Chronicles was written as the pilot for the show that would eventually be called Seinfeld, though earlier versions of the script would refer to the program as Stand Up and The Jerry Seinfeld Show. The idea for the show started on November 2, 1988, after NBC executives had approached comedian Jerry Seinfeld to do a project with the network, upon a suggestion by George Shapiro, Seinfeld's manager at the time. Seinfeld enlisted fellow comedian Larry David to help him develop it, and they wrote a concept for a 90-minute-special (that was to air one weekend in place of Saturday Night Live) about how comedians get their material. However, upon further discussion, Seinfeld felt that the concept could not be sustained for 90 minutes, and the two decided that the project was to become a pilot for a series rather than a special. Developed by NBC executive Rick Ludwin, and produced by Castle Rock Entertainment, it was a mix of Seinfeld's stand-up comedy routines and idiosyncratic, conversational scenes focusing on mundane aspects of everyday life.

Conceived as a "show about nothing," in which the main characters would "just make fun of stuff", Seinfeld said that the idea of the pilot episode was to explore the "gaps in society where there are no rules." The storyline, as well as most of the main characters, were inspired by the personal lives of its creators. Jerry was a fictionalized version of Seinfeld, George a fictionalized version of Larry David and Kessler was based on David's neighbor Kenny Kramer. Though Seinfeld was initially concerned the "wacky neighbor" would be too much of a cliché, David convinced him to put the character in the script. However, anticipating that the actual Kramer would exploit the benefits of having a TV character based on him, David hesitated to call the character Kramer. Thus, in the pilot, the character's name is "Kessler". However, intrigued by the name, Seinfeld was convinced that the character's name should be Kramer, prompting Kenny Kramer to call NBC's legal department with various financial and legal demands, most of which he received. The name inconsistency would eventually be addressed in the season 9 episode "The Betrayal" in which Kramer explains that Kessler is the name on his apartment buzzer.

David and Seinfeld re-wrote the script several times before submitting it to the network, dropping and adding various elements. Originally George, who was called Bennett in early drafts, was a comedian as well, and the first scene of the episode focused on Jerry and George discussing their stand-up material. The character of Kramer was not included in the first draft of the script; in another draft he is called "Hoffman". Another element that was added was Kessler's dog, since it was originally planned that Jerry's stand-up routines would match the events of each episode. Though the stand-up routine about dogs was eventually dropped, a scene in which Kessler enters with his dog remained in the episode. When David and Seinfeld eventually submitted the script, the network executives were unsure whether or not to produce the pilot, but as NBC executive Warren Littlefield would later state "we all said, ah what the hell, let's try a pilot on this thing and see what happens".

Directed by Art Wolff, the pilot was filmed in front of a live studio audience on April 27, 1989, at Stage 9 of Ren-Mar Studios, the same studio where The Dick Van Dyke Show was filmed, which was seen by the crew as a good omen. The exterior of Pete's Luncheonette, the restaurant in which the episode opens, was a leftover set piece from The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984). Seinfeld's stand-up routine was recorded at Ren-Mar Studios in Hollywood, in front of an audience of paid extras, though not all of the recorded material was included in the broadcast version. Additionally, a scene was recorded featuring Jerry and George driving to the airport talking about changing lanes on the road and giving "Thank you waves", but was cut before  broadcasting. The music used in the episode was composed by Jep Epstein; however, when the show was picked up, Epstein's tune was replaced by the trademark slap bass music by Jonathan Wolff.

CastingThe Seinfeld Chronicles featured four characters that were intended to be series regulars if the show was to be picked up for a first season: Jerry, George, Kramer and Claire the waitress. Though it was already settled that Seinfeld would play a fictionalized version of himself, auditions were held for the other three characters. Though George was based on Larry David, David was keen on writing, and did not have the desire to portray the character himself. Prior to the casting process, Seinfeld pleaded with his friend Jake Johannsen to play the part, but he rejected it. When the casting process started, as casting director Marc Hirschfeld stated, the casting crew "saw every actor [they] could possibly see in Los Angeles". Among these actors were Larry Miller (Seinfeld's real-life best friend), Brad Hall, David Alan Grier, and Nathan Lane yet none of them seemed fit for the part. Jason Alexander auditioned for the part via a video tape, though he had very little hope for being cast, as he felt he was doing a Woody Allen impression. However, upon watching the tape, David and Seinfeld were immediately convinced Alexander would be the right actor to cast. However, casting sessions traditionally work with rounds, so Alexander and a few other actors considered for the role were flown to Los Angeles for a second audition. One of the other actors who made it to this round was Larry Miller. As Alexander knew Miller was a close friend of Seinfeld, he was convinced he would not get the part, but eventually did.

Kenny Kramer initially demanded that he would play the part of Kessler, as he served as the inspiration for the character. However, David did not want this and it was decided that casting sessions would be held. Among those who auditioned for the part of Kramer were Steve Vinovich, Tony Shalhoub and Larry Hankin. Although he was not cast for the part Hankin would later portray an in-show fictional version of Kramer in the season four episode "The Pilot". Seinfeld and David were both familiar with Michael Richards, and David had worked with him on Fridays. Richards did his final audition at the Century Plaza Hotel on April 18, 1989, reputedly finishing with a handstand. David was not sure about casting Richards, as he was trying to cast an actor who resembled the original Kramer. However, impressed by Richards' audition, Seinfeld convinced David that Richards would be the right actor for the part.

Lee Garlington was cast as Claire the Waitress, who in an earlier draft of the episode was called "Meg". Though initially cast as a series regular, the character was replaced with Elaine Benes when the series was picked up for a first season. Accounts differ on the reason why the character was replaced. Warren Littlefield has said that it was because the character's occupation: "I thought that as a waitress she'd never be one of the gang. She'd be relegated to pouring coffee, catching up. So I insisted they create a female character they wanted to spend time with". Dennis Bjorklund of Seinfeld Reference has suggested that the character was dropped in favor of a female character with more sex appeal. However, Alexander said that Garlington was written out of the series because she had re-written her scene and given it to David, who was not happy with this. Seinfeld has, however, stated that this was not the reason the character was removed from the show, but rather that the producers were looking for "someone who was more involved". Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who would go on to replace Garlington, has stated that she was not aware of the pilot before becoming a regular on the show, and she will never watch it out of superstition.

Reception
The pilot was first screened by a group of two dozen NBC executives in Burbank, California in early 1989. Although it did not yield the explosion of laughter garnered by pilots for the decade's previous NBC successes like The Cosby Show and The Golden Girls, it drew mostly positive responses from the executives. One exception was Brandon Tartikoff, who was concerned that the show was "Too New York, too Jewish". Before the episode's TV premiere, it was shown to a test audience of 400 households, and met with extremely negative responses. Littlefield later recalled, "In the history of pilot reports, Seinfeld has got to be one of the worst of all time". The memo summarizing the test audience's reactions contained feedback such as "No segment of the audience was eager to watch the show again" and "None of the [supporting characters] were particularly liked". Despite this, and even though the executives had already decided the show would not be picked up for a full season, "The Seinfeld Chronicles" was broadcast on July 5, 1989 to see how viewers would react. It finished second in its time slot, behind the CBS police drama Jake and the Fatman, receiving a Nielsen rating of 10.9/19, meaning that the pilot was watched by 10.9% of American households, and that 19% of all televisions in use at the time were tuned into it. With these ratings, "The Seinfeld Chronicles" finished in the 21st place of the week it was broadcast, tied with Fox's Totally Hidden Video.

Unlike the test audience, television critics generally reacted positively to the pilot, viewing it as original and innovative. USA Today critic Tom Green summarized it as a "crisply funny blend of stand-up routines interwoven with more traditional sitcom stuff". Eric Mink of St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote that he thought the show was "unusual and intriguing", yet "quite funny". Joe Stein of the San Diego Evening Tribune wrote, "Not all standup comedians fit into a sitcom format, but Seinfeld does". A more negative response came from a The Fresno Bee critic: "I liked the concept, but Seinfeld's jokes were so dull that you hoped the standup stuff would fly by so you could get back to the story". Though the critic praised Alexander's acting, he commented that his performance was not enough to keep the show "from being just another piece of summer drivel offered up by a major commercial network".

Various critics compared the pilot to It's Garry Shandling's Show. In his review, The Philadelphia Inquirer's Ken Tucker commented, "Seinfeld's brisk funniness prevents Chronicles from being a rip-off", while Jerry Krupnick of The Star-Ledger felt that The Seinfeld Chronicles differentiated itself from It's Garry Shandling's Show by its supporting cast, which he praised. By contrast, John Voorhees of The Seattle Times wrote that though he found the show amusing, he considered It's Garry Shandling's Show better, and the Houston Chronicle's Mike McDaniel called it "a not-as-good Garry Shandling-like show".

Most critics reacted with disappointment that NBC had not picked up the show. Bob Niedt of the Syracuse Herald-Journal write, "What gives? Comedy this good, and NBC is keeping—excuse me—A Different World on the schedule?" Ken Tucker said, "NBC is making a mistake if it doesn't pick up The Seinfeld Chronicles as a midseason replacement; it's bound to be superior to most of what the network has planned for the fall".

Casting directors Hirschfeld and Meg Liberman were nominated for a Casting Society of America Artios Award for 'Best Casting for TV, Pilot', but lost to the casting directors of Northern Exposure.

Though the network executives had decided not to pick up The Seinfeld Chronicles for a first season, some of them  were reluctant to give up on it, as they felt it had potential. Rick Ludwin, one of the show's greatest supporters, eventually made a deal with Tartikoff, giving up some of his own development money and cancelling a Bob Hope special so the entertainment division could order four more episodes of The Seinfeld Chronicles; these formed the rest of the show's first season. It was a very small order for a new series—the smallest sitcom order in TV history—but when Castle Rock failed to sell the series to another network, they accepted the order. The first season premiered about a year later, with the show renamed Seinfeld to avoid confusion with ABC's The Marshall Chronicles''. The pilot was re-aired on July 5, 1990 as the season's first episode; it received a Nielsen rating of 13.8/26.

References

External links

 

1989 American television episodes
American television pilots
Seinfeld (season 1) episodes
Television episodes written by Larry David
Television episodes written by Jerry Seinfeld Jerome Allen Seinfeld ( ; born April 29, 1954) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He is best known for playing a semi-fictionalized version of himself in the sitcom Seinfeld, which he created and wrote with Larry David. The show aired on NBC from 1989 until 1998, becoming one of the most acclaimed and popular American sitcoms of all time. As a stand-up comedian, Seinfeld specializes in observational comedy. In 2004, Comedy Central named him as the 12th-greatest stand-up comedian of all time.

Seinfeld produced, co-wrote, and starred in the 2007 film Bee Movie, which was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. In 2010, he premiered a reality series called The Marriage Ref, which aired for two seasons on NBC. Seinfeld is the creator and host of the web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (2012–2019). He is married to author and philanthropist Jessica Seinfeld, with whom he has three children. Seinfeld has received twenty Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his work on Seinfeld and Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee as well as four Grammy Award nominations for his comedy albums.

Early life
Seinfeld was born in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City. His father, Kálmán Seinfeld (1918–1985), was of Hungarian-Jewish descent and collected jokes that he heard while serving in World War II. His mother, Betty (née Hosni; 1915–2014), and her parents, Selim and Salha Hosni, were Jews from Aleppo, Syria. Their nationality was stated as Turkish when they immigrated in 1917, as Syria was under the Ottoman Empire. Seinfeld has an older sister, Carolyn. Salha’s mother Garez Dayan, Seinfeld's great-grandmother, was a member of the noted Dayan rabbinic family, who trace their paternal ancestry back to the Medieval Exilarchs, and from the Exilarchs back to the Biblical King David. Seinfeld's second cousin is musician and actor Evan Seinfeld. Seinfeld grew up in Massapequa, New York, and attended Massapequa High School on Long Island. At the age of 16, he spent time volunteering in Kibbutz Sa'ar in Israel. He attended State University of New York at Oswego, and transferred after his second year to Queens College, City University of New York, whence he graduated with a degree in communications and theater.

Career

Early career
Seinfeld developed an interest in stand-up comedy after brief stints in college productions. He appeared on open-mic nights at Budd Friedman's Improv Club while attending Queens College. After graduation in 1976, he tried out at an open-mic night at New York City's Catch a Rising Star, which led to an appearance in a Rodney Dangerfield HBO special. In 1980, he had a small recurring role on the sitcom Benson, playing Frankie, a mail-delivery boy who had comedy routines that no one wanted to hear. Seinfeld was abruptly fired from the show due to creative differences. Seinfeld has said that he was not told he had been fired until he turned up for the read-through session for an episode and found that there was no script for him. In May 1981, Seinfeld made a successful appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, impressing Carson and the audience, leading to frequent appearances on that show and others, including Late Night with David Letterman. On September 5, 1987, his first one-hour special Stand-Up Confidential aired live on HBO.

Seinfeld

Seinfeld created The Seinfeld Chronicles with Larry David in 1988 for NBC. The show was later renamed Seinfeld to avoid confusion with the short-lived teen sitcom The Marshall Chronicles. By its third season, it had become the most watched sitcom on American television. The final episode aired in 1998, and the show has been a popular syndicated re-run. Along with Seinfeld, the show starred Saturday Night Live veteran Julia Louis-Dreyfus and experienced actors Michael Richards and Jason Alexander. Alexander played George, a caricature of Larry David. Seinfeld is the only actor to appear in every episode of the show.

Seinfeld has said that his show was influenced by the 1950s sitcom The Abbott and Costello Show. In the "Seinfeld Season 6" DVD set, commenting on the episode "The Gymnast," Seinfeld cited Jean Shepherd as an influence, saying, "He really formed my entire comedic sensibility—I learned how to do comedy from Jean Shepherd." From 2004 to 2007, the former Seinfeld cast and crew recorded audio commentaries for episodes of the DVD releases of the show.

Post-Seinfeld
After he ended his sitcom, Seinfeld returned to New York City to make a comeback with his stand-up comedy rather than stay in Los Angeles and continue his acting career. In 1998, he went on tour and recorded a comedy special, titled I'm Telling You for the Last Time. The process of developing and performing new material at clubs around the world was chronicled in a 2002 documentary, Comedian, which also featured fellow comic Orny Adams and was directed by Christian Charles. Seinfeld has written several books, mostly archives of past routines. In the late 1990s, Apple Computer came up with the advertising slogan "Think different" and produced a 60-second commercial to promote the slogan. This commercial showed people who were able to "think differently," such as Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and many others. It was later cut short to 30 seconds and altered such that Seinfeld was included at the end, although he had not been in the original cut. This shorter version of the commercial aired only once, during the series finale of Seinfeld.  In 2004, Seinfeld appeared in two commercial webisodes promoting American Express, titled The Adventures of Seinfeld & Superman. In these, Seinfeld appeared with a cartoon rendering of Superman, to whom reference was made in numerous episodes of Seinfeld as Seinfeld's hero, voiced by Patrick Warburton (character David Puddy on Seinfeld). The webisodes were directed by Barry Levinson and aired briefly on television. Seinfeld and "Superman" were also interviewed by Matt Lauer in a specially recorded interview for the Today show. On November 18, 2004, Seinfeld appeared at the National Museum of American History to donate the "puffy shirt" he wore in the Seinfeld episode of the same name. He also gave a speech when presenting the "puffy shirt," saying humorously that "This is the most embarrassing moment of my life." On May 13, 2006, Seinfeld had a cameo appearance on Saturday Night Live as host Julia Louis-Dreyfus' assassin. Louis-Dreyfus in her opening monolog mentioned the "Seinfeld curse." While talking about how ridiculous the "curse" was, a stage light suddenly fell next to her. The camera moved to a catwalk above the stage where Seinfeld was standing, holding a large pair of bolt cutters. He angrily muttered, "Damn it!" upset that it did not hit her. Louis-Dreyfus continued to say that she is indeed not cursed.

On February 25, 2007, Seinfeld appeared at the 79th Academy Awards as the presenter for "Best Documentary." Before announcing the nominations, he did a short stand-up comedy routine about the unspoken agreement between movie theater owners and movie patrons. On October 4, 2007, Seinfeld made a guest appearance as himself in the 30 Rock episode "SeinfeldVision." On February 24, 2008, at the 80th Academy Awards, Seinfeld appeared as the voice of his Bee Movie animated character Barry, presenting Best Animated Short Film. Before announcing the nominees, he showed a montage of film clips featuring bees, saying that they were some of his early work (as Barry).

On June 2, 2008, amidst his spring 2008 tour, Seinfeld performed in his hometown of New York City for a one-night-only show at the Hammerstein Ballroom to benefit Stand Up for a Cure, a charity aiding lung cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. In August 2008, the Associated Press reported that Jerry Seinfeld would be the pitchman for Windows Vista, as part of a $300-million advertising campaign by Microsoft. The ads, which were intended to create buzz for Windows in support of the subsequent "I'm a PC" advertisements, began airing in mid-September 2008. They were cut from television after three installments; Microsoft opted to continue with the "I'm a PC" advertisements and run the Seinfeld ads on the Microsoft website as a series of longer advertisements. In March 2009, it was announced that Seinfeld and the entire cast of Seinfeld would be appearing for a reunion in Larry David's HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm. The fictional reunion took place in the seventh season's finale and starred most of the original cast, including Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander, Michael Richards, in a multiple-episode arc. Seinfeld appeared on an episode of the Starz original series Head Case. As was the case in many of his previous guest appearances on sitcoms, he played himself.

In Australia, Seinfeld appeared on a series of advertisements for the Greater Building Society, a building society based in New South Wales and southeastern Queensland. His appearance in these ads was highly publicized and considered a coup for the society, being the third time Seinfeld had appeared in a television commercial. The advertisements were filmed in Cedarhurst, Long Island, with the street designed to emulate Beaumont Street in Hamilton, where the Greater's head offices are located. Seinfeld also wrote the scripts for the 15 advertisements that were filmed. The ads largely aired in the Northern New South Wales television market, where the society has most of its branches. Seinfeld was the first guest on Jay Leno's talk show The Jay Leno Show, which premiered on September 14, 2009. Seinfeld was featured on Saturday Night Lives Weekend Update sketch to do the "Really!?!" segment with Seth Meyers. He executive produced and occasionally starred as a panelist in The Marriage Ref. On August 30, 2010, Seinfeld made a surprise guest appearance on The Howard Stern Show, mending the feud the two had in the early '90s.

Seinfeld toured the U.S. in 2011 and made his first stand-up appearance in the UK in 11 years. In July 2011, he was a surprise guest on The Daily Show, helping Jon Stewart to suppress his urge to tell "cheap" "Michele Bachmann's husband acts gay" jokes. Seinfeld also launched a personal archives website at JerrySeinfeld.com and appeared in the HBO special Talking Funny with fellow comedians Chris Rock, Louis C.K., and Ricky Gervais in the same year, which was where the first documentation of Seinfeld saying the word he made up, that word being "Chaash".

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee 

In 2012, Seinfeld started a web series titled Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, in which he would pick up a fellow comedian in a different car each episode and take them out for coffee and conversation. The show originally aired on the Crackle streaming service and then was bought by Netflix. The initial series consisted of ten episodes lasting from 7 to 25 minutes each. The show has continued to get high-profile guests such as Tina Fey, Dave Chappelle, Louis C.K., Eddie Murphy, Steve Martin, David Letterman, Chris Rock, John Mulaney, Mel Brooks, Don Rickles, Ellen DeGeneres, Howard Stern, and Jerry Lewis. The show has also hosted Seinfeld alums Larry David, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander, and Michael Richards. Season seven featured its most high-profile guest, then-President Barack Obama. In a farewell tribute video for the Obamas before the President left office, Seinfeld stated, "That knocking on the Oval Office window. That probably was the peak of my entire existence."

Seinfeld signed a comedy deal with Netflix in January 2017. As part of the deal, all episodes of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee would be made available on the streaming service, in addition to a new twenty-four-episode season.

Other appearances 
In June 2013, he appeared on rapper Wale's album The Gifted, on the song "Outro About Nothing." Seinfeld received coverage for his speech at the 2014 Clio Awards ceremony, where he received an honorary award, as media reporters said that he "mocked" and "ripped apart" the advertising industry; his statement of "I love advertising because I love lying" received particular attention.

In 2014, Jerry Seinfeld hosted the special Don Rickles: One Night Only at the Apollo Theatre. The event celebrated Don Rickles and his career, but also served as a roast among friends. Those who participated in the event included Jon Stewart, David Letterman, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Nathan Lane, Regis Philbin, Robert De Niro, and Martin Scorsese.

On February 15, 2015, Seinfeld made a guest appearance on the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special, where he hosted the "Questions from the Audience" segment, which included cameos from Michael Douglas, John Goodman, James Franco, Larry David, Ellen Cleghorne, Dakota Johnson, Tim Meadows, Bob Odenkirk, and Sarah Palin (who Seinfeld initially mistook for Tina Fey).

On May 20, 2015, Seinfeld made a guest appearance on David Letterman's final Late Show episode. Seinfeld joined other friends of the show to pay tribute to Letterman. The other guests included Alec Baldwin, Barbara Walters, Steve Martin, Jim Carrey, Chris Rock, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Peyton Manning, Tina Fey, and Bill Murray who all participated in The Top Ten List segment, "Things I've Always Wanted to Say to Dave."

In January 2017, Seinfeld went on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and joined Dave Chappelle, and Jimmy Fallon in honoring outgoing First Lady Michelle Obama, and played a game of Catchphrase, which Mrs. Obama and Fallon won to Seinfeld's dismay.

In October 2020, Seinfeld joined Steve Martin in a discussion about comedy at The New Yorker Festival. They discussed subjects ranging from the creative process, Netflix, and The Oscars, to their comedy backgrounds, and the future of comedy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Netflix deal 
Seinfeld made a deal with the streaming service Netflix that included Seinfeld and Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee on their streaming service as well as two new Seinfeld stand-up specials and the development of scripted and non-scripted comedy programming for Netflix.

On September 19, 2017, Netflix released the stand-up comedy special Jerry Before Seinfeld.  The special follows the comedian as he returns for a stand-up routine at the New York City comedy club, Comic Strip Live, which started his career. The special is intercut with documentary clips and his stand-up special. The special was later released as an LP, CD and download album, and was nominated for a 2018 Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.

In 2020, it was announced that Netflix would be releasing Seinfeld's first original stand-up special in 22 years, 23 Hours to Kill. The special premiered on the streaming service May 5.

Books
Seinfeld wrote the book SeinLanguage, released in 1993. Written as his television show was first rising in popularity, it is primarily an adaptation of his stand-up material. The title comes from an article in Entertainment Weekly listing the numerous catchphrases for which the show was responsible. In 2002, he wrote the children's book Halloween. The book was illustrated by James Bennett. Seinfeld wrote the forewords to Ted L. Nancy's Letters from a Nut series of books and Ed Broth's Stories from a Moron. Seinfeld also wrote the foreword to the Peanut Butter & Co. Cookbook. In October 2020, Seinfeld released his new book Is This Anything?. The book chronicles Seinfeld's 45 years working in comedy and contains many of his best bits that span from various decades.

Influences
Seinfeld has stated, "On the Mount Rushmore of stand-up comedy, there are four faces, in my opinion: Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Bill Cosby and Don Rickles." Seinfeld has also cited as his influences the humorist Jean Shepherd, Mad Magazine, Jonathan Winters, Jerry Lewis, Robert Klein, and Abbott and Costello.

In the Netflix comedy special, Jerry Before Seinfeld, he displayed his personal comedy albums collection from when he was a teenager. These albums included:

Lenny Bruce – Thank You Masked Man (1972)
George Carlin – Class Clown (1972)
Steve Martin – Let's Get Small (1977)
Bob Newhart – The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart (1960)
Mike Nichols and Elaine May – Improvisations to Music (1958)
Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner – 2000 and One Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks (1961)

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Seinfeld stated his five favorite films are The Heartbreak Kid (1972), The Graduate (1967), The In-Laws (1979), A Night at the Opera (1935), and Glengarry Glen Ross (1992).

Those influenced by Seinfeld include John Mulaney, Jim Gaffigan, Judd Apatow, Ellen DeGeneres, and Issa Rae.

Personal life
Seinfeld is a fan of the New York Mets, and periodically calls Steve Somers' show on WFAN-AM, a sports talk radio station, as "Jerry from Queens." Seinfeld called four innings of a Mets game on SportsNet New York on June 23, 2010, reuniting with analyst Keith Hernandez, who appeared in the Seinfeld two-part episode entitled "The Boyfriend."

In a 2014 interview with NBC News, Seinfeld made statements suggesting that he believed he was on the autism spectrum. However, following criticism for his alleged self-diagnosis, he later clarified that he is not autistic and had been commenting on a play about the condition that he "related to [...] on some level."

Seinfeld has made several political contributions, including to George W. Bush's and Al Gore's presidential campaigns in 2000, and subsequently to four Democratic Party primary candidates in 2000 and 2004.

Early relationships and marriage 

Years before Seinfeld was created, Seinfeld dated Carol Leifer. She was a fellow comedian, and one of the inspirations for the Seinfeld character Elaine Benes. On national television with sex therapist and talk show host Dr. Ruth Westheimer, he explained how, in 1984, he was engaged but called it off.

When he was 39 years old, Seinfeld started a romantic relationship with Shoshanna Lonstein, who was much younger, 18 years of age, when they began dating. Early in their relationship, Spy Magazine referred to her as "a legal voter", mocking her young age. They dated for approximately four years, from 1993 to 1997, before the relationship ended. She transferred from GW to UCLA, in part to be with Seinfeld, and cited missing New York City and constant press coverage as reasons for the relationship ending.

In August 1998 while at a Reebok Sports Club, Seinfeld met Jessica Sklar, a public relations executive for Tommy Hilfiger who had just returned from a three-week honeymoon in Italy with then husband Eric Nederlander, a theatrical producer and scion of a theater-owning family. Unaware of Sklar's marital status, Seinfeld invited her out. When Sklar eventually told Seinfeld about her relationship situation, she said, “I told him I didn’t think this was the right time for me to be involved with anybody..." Two months later Sklar filed for divorce and continued dating Seinfeld. The pair married on December 25, 1999. Comedian George Wallace was the best man at the wedding. After the nuptials, Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld bought Billy Joel's house in Amagansett, Long Island, for US$32 million after news of the couple's interest in the property became public in 2000. The Seinfelds have one daughter and two sons.

Religion 
Seinfeld was raised in Judaism by his Jewish parents. Although for the most part he seems to practice the religion in private, he has discreetly mentioned aspects of the culture in his material and interviews and is known to have dated Jewish women only.

Seinfeld stated that he took a Scientology course when he was in his 20s; he said that he found it interesting but that he didn't pursue it any further.

Transcendental Meditation 
In December 2012, Seinfeld said that he had been practicing Transcendental Meditation (TM) for 40 years. He promoted the use of the technique in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder with Bob Roth of the David Lynch Foundation in December 2012 on Good Morning America, and also appeared at a 2009 David Lynch Foundation benefit for TM, at which Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr appeared. On November 5, 2015, the David Lynch Foundation organized a benefit concert at New York City's Carnegie Hall called "Change Begins Within" to promote transcendental meditation for stress control. "It's been the greatest companion technique of living that I've ever come across, and I'm thrilled to be part of this movement that seems to have really been reinvigorated by Bob [Roth] and David Lynch," Seinfeld said. "I would do anything that I could to promote it in the world, because I think it's the greatest thing as a life tool, as a work tool and just making things make sense."

Charity 
In 1999, Seinfeld auctioned a Breitling Chronomat watch as part of the "Famous Faces, Watch Auction For Charity" event in New York City. This watch sold for $11,000.

In 2001, Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld created the charity organization The Good+Foundation after their first child was born. Good+Foundation grants donations of products and services to programs that have demonstrated a capacity to address family poverty in three focus areas: supporting new mothers, investing in early childhood, and engaging fathers. GOOD+ Foundation has donated over $42M worth of items through its partner network across the United States.

Seinfeld has also participated in Jon Stewart's charity event, Night of Too Many Stars.

Wealth
According to Forbes magazine, Seinfeld's cumulative earnings from Seinfeld as of 2004 was $267 million, placing him at the top of the celebrity earnings list that year. He turned down $5 million per episode, for 22 episodes, to continue the show for a 10th season. Seinfeld earned $100 million from syndication deals and stand-up performances in 2004, and $60 million in 2006. He also earned $10 million for appearing with Bill Gates in Microsoft's 2008 advertisements for Windows. Between June 2008 and June 2009, Seinfeld earned $85 million, making him the world's highest-paid comedian during those 12 months. In 2013, Forbes documented Seinfeld's annual income as $32 million. In mid-2013, Seinfeld disputed Forbes claims regarding his income and net worth on The Howard Stern Show. Seinfeld was ranked by Forbes the highest-paid comedian for 2015, the second-highest paid in 2016, and the highest-paid again in 2017. Seinfeld's income between June 2016 and June 2017 was $69 million.

Automobiles

Seinfeld is an automobile enthusiast and collector, and he owns a collection of about 150 cars, including a large Porsche collection. He rented a hangar at the Santa Monica Airport in Santa Monica, California, for an extended period during the 1990s for storage of some of the vehicles in the collection. In 2002, Seinfeld purchased property on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City where he built a $1.4 million two-story garage to store part of his Porsche collection on the East Coast. One tally has Seinfeld owning 43 Porsches. Paul Bannister has written that Seinfeld's collection includes Porsche 911s from various years, 10 Porsche Boxsters each painted a different color, and the 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder, the same model and pearl-grey color that actor James Dean was driving when he died after crashing the car.

The Discovery Channel television show Chasing Classic Cars claimed that Seinfeld owns the first and last produced air-cooled Porsche 911s. The centerpiece is a $700,000 Porsche 959, one of only 337 built. He was originally not allowed to drive it, because the car was "not street legal." U.S. emissions and crash tests had not been performed for the model because Porsche refused to donate four Porsche 959s for destruction tests. Seinfeld imported the car "for exhibition purposes," on the stipulation that it may never be driven on U.S. roads. The car was made U.S. street legal in 1999 under the "Show and Display" federal law. Seinfeld wrote an article for the February 2004 issue of Automobile, reviewing the Porsche Carrera GT.

In 2008, Seinfeld was involved in a car accident when the brakes on his 1967 Fiat 500 failed and, to avoid an intersection, he pulled the emergency brake while turning sharply, ultimately causing the car to flip onto its side. No one was hurt.

Espresso machines
A coffee and espresso machine aficionado, Seinfeld owns multiple espresso machines, including the $17,000 Elektra Belle Epoque and two machines manufactured by Slayer and Breville, respectively. Seinfeld described his single-group Slayer machine, which costs upwards of $8,500, as a "beautiful machine." When NPR asked him about the influence of coffee culture in the U.S., Seinfeld responded in 2013:I never liked [coffee] and I didn't understand it and I used to do a lot of stuff in my stand-up set in the '80s and '90s about how I don't 'get' coffee. And then something happened about five years ago. I started touring a lot, and we would have these great big, fun breakfasts in the hotel and [coffee] just seemed to go really well [with breakfast]. [Now], I've just started this espresso thing.

Work

Film

Television

Stand-up home video appearances

References

Video games

Discography 
Comedy specials

Directing

Bibliography 
SeinLanguage (1993)
Halloween (2002)
Is This Anything? (2020)

Writing credits for Seinfeld

The list below only includes episodes mainly written by Seinfeld, as he (and Larry David in Seasons 1 through 7) rewrote the drafts for each episode.

Awards and nominations

Primetime Emmy Awards

Grammy Awards

Golden Globe Awards

Screen Actors Guild Award

Other awards
American Comedy Award for Funniest Male Performer in a TV Series (1992)
American Comedy Award for Funniest Male Performer in a TV Series (1993)
Nominated – American Comedy Award for Funniest Male Performer in a TV Series (1996)
Nominated – American Comedy Award for Funniest Male Performer in a TV Series (1999)

References

External links

 
 
 
 
 

1954 births
Living people
20th-century American comedians
20th-century American Jews
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American comedians
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American Ashkenazi Jews
American car collectors
American film producers
American male comedians
American male comedy actors
American male non-fiction writers
American male screenwriters
American male television actors
American male television writers
American male voice actors
American memoirists
American Mizrahi Jews
American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
American people of Syrian-Jewish descent
American philanthropists
American stand-up comedians
American television writers
American Zionists
Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (television) winners
Comedians from New York (state)
Comedians from New York City
Film producers from New York (state)
Jewish American male actors
Jewish American male comedians
Jewish American writers
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Jews and Judaism in New York City
Las Vegas shows
Male actors from New York (state)
Male actors from New York City
Massapequa High School alumni
People from Amagansett, New York
People from Massapequa, New York
People from the Upper West Side
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Queens College, City University of New York alumni
Screenwriters from New York (state)
Showrunners
State University of New York at Oswego alumni
Television producers from New York City
Writers from Brooklyn